Your answer to annoying sayings

I love that in Ireland and to a lesser extent it happens here in the West of Scotland .I'm very guily of adding wee though its a wee "poke" not bag .A friend married a lady from Essex and when my OH asked if she needed a wee poke (for the leaflets she was carrying) she was very flustered and confused .Caused a lot of hilarity when she explained what a poke meant in Essex.

40 years ago I moved house, a distance of 30miles. More than one of my new neighbours said "see you later" when saying goodbye. I was confused as I had made no arrangement to see them again that day and this wasn't used 40 miles down the road.

5 years later I moved 25 miles and even in that short distance people used different phrases.

Gransnet has a number of threads similar to this and it does make me cautious what I say.

...don't get me started on the me, personally at this moment in time!

'Would you like a cup of tea?' 'I'm OK thanks'. I didn't ask how you were, I asked if you wanted a cup of tea!

What about ‘like’that always comes up.
So annoying.

“See you later” can also be misconstrued in some situations
Whilst working abroad my male colleague said this to someone he had just been talking to at a bar in an hotel. Being a Northerner he meant” Goodbye “ He then went up to his room. 10 minutes later a knock on his door and he opened it to see the ‘friend ‘ standing there wanting to know if she could come into his room. He was horrified!

Paddyann
Here in N Ireland a wee poke is an ice cream cone, usually from the poke-man (ice cream van) - it caused much confusion the first time my work colleague from Somerset heard the phrase...

Not a misuse of words, but an annoying occurrence, when my bank rings me and then asks security questions. Do they think I'm a burglar in my house , answering the 'phone?

Another irritation - when people are asked if they want something they reply 'No - you're alright' . What does that mean?

Being told someone "has lost a relative." I always want to ask them where was the last place they remember them being.

Oh - its 'sat sitting' around here. Sorry razzmatazz but I just love the sayings in my adopted county.

Grannyknot. The origins of the word afraid being said as you mention is politely introducing bad news so Alexander Armstrong is using the word correctly

I was sitting on the ‘bus behind two young lassies and the conversation went like this:

Girl 1. “Well, after we heard, I was like ‘Uh?’, and Naomi was like ‘Eh?’, and Chloe was like, ‘What?’
It was like, AMAAZING!”.
Girl 2. “OMG! You musta been like, WOW!”

I know I was like, eavesdropping, which is not like, very nice, but I really would have liked to know what had been going on!

You’ve started me off now on my pet hate. This always happens in my bank. The greeter says ‘Are you alright there.’ I take this as a question and answer ‘yes, thanks’. I don’t say anymore or move. She then gets the message and we progress.

I totally agree with razzmatazz. I could join in with that scream! Another one I hate is ‘of’ instead of ‘have’, as in ‘would of’or ‘could of’.

Oh how wonderful this is! To moan about the dreadful things people have been saying for so long now and which are far worse to hear, for me, than fingernails being scraped down the blackboard! Saying "I'm good" to "How are you?" is dreadful! Also "Was you...?" when asking a question. I was first slapped round the face with that one when asking directions to the house of a birthday party for child in my daughter's class some 40 years ago, and the mother asked me "Was you coming up the A25 or ..?" I was so shocked my mind went blank.
I also suffer terribly when I hear "somethink" and "anythink".
Sparklefizz, your example does allow me to dare say that standards are much lower today. I seriously doubt that many teachers would know the difference between "would" and "could" or use them appropriately.
I have become a grouchy old woman and I don't care. This is but an example of standards cascading in all areas.

The way people speak matters. If people cannot speak reasonably correctly then the meaning of what we are saying gets confused and surely so does their thinking. Similarly with spelling. The trend to "dumb down" has gone so far that our education system has fallen behind and we are becoming a third-rate Country. But try telling someone that what they have said does not make sense! I tried to explain very gently to someone but she was so sure she was in the right, she became aggressive!

Deed5y

Aaaaaghh! Yes! "would of". It is awful!! I cannot cope with it! This, as it happens, was the example I was trying to explain to above lady (previous post) who, supposedly a friend, became aggressive!

I must admit, if anyone writes it, for example on Social Media, I stop reading immediately!

Just before I go... I must admit that I sometimes forget the difference between "Will" and "Shall".
In good old-fashioned English Teaching, when the children had to sit up properly and listen and be quiet and learn, we were taught the difference between;
1. "I shall drown and nobody will save me". and
2. "I will drown and nobody shall save me."
Do people know the difference today?

Not to mention "imply" and "infer"....

I am so fed up with "and don't get me started on..." I always want to say, "I don't need to, you've done it yourself.
Then there's the call centre representative who says "can you confirm your address please?" On one occasion I did actually reply "yes". Silence. A long silence, followed by a nervous "er, I need you to confirm your address". So I said "yes, I will, but I'm waiting for you to read it out to me so that I can confirm it." I did explain to her, nicely, afterwards that what she should be saying is "please tell me your address so that I can confirm it."

"at this moment in time" In the 1960s our English teacher told us not to speak or write like politicians. "What you mean, girls, is NOW.

I never hear the expression "at this moment in time" without hearing Mrs Jones addressing her class of 13 year olds.

This thread has, in my humble opinion, a bit snooty. I think that many of you are forgetting that 'regional' words and phrases are not kept in their regions anymore. I was brought up in the south of England and tv was very much 'Queens English. The first time I heard any different was when on holiday on the Norfolk coast when I was 13. A family from Manchester were there. There way of speaking was totally alien to me. Regional ways of speaking and also Americasms are in our life now....ACCEPT. As for the snooty comments about words not being used correctly....well....language evolves. The origins of words may not be anything to do with their meaning today....ACCEPT

Many people around here confuse lend and borrow. My daughter in law is an English teacher and quoted the following

Pupil 1. Please Miss can I lend a pencil?
DDIL No
Pupil 1. Please Miss I’ve forgotten mine. Can I lend a pencil?
DDIL. No
Pupil 1. But Miss I can’t do my work if I can’t lend a pencil.

Pupil 2. She wants you to say borrow

In Ireland/Northern Ireland when asked how they are people quite often say "I'm grand ". I use it all the time. It doesn't mean I am upper class and snooty, it's our way of saying "I'm well". It can also used if somone was to apologise for example for bumping into you. You might then reply "don't worry your grand". Those pedants of the English language may object - tough - I think things like this enrich h the language!!!

I really dislike people starting a sentence with 'So' and peppering 'like' throughout a conversation.
Eammon Holmes is guilty (as usual) when he says 'Me and Ruth'. No-one's perfect but I would expect a tv presenter to be capable of using gramatically correct English.